Culturally, Lamz is discovering what many a civilian IT employee already knows: In corporate settings, procedures aren’t
always clearly defined, and goals aren’t always definitively set.
That’s a big change from the military, Lamz says, where “there’s
a structured procedure for everything from greasing a bearing
to getting a haircut.”
Nicholas Riggins
MilitaRy expeRieNce: U.S. Air Force, 2001-2008, traffic manage-
ment officer in the Logistics troop; stationed at Andrews Air Force
Base (home of Air Force One) and Cannon Air Force Base, Clovis,
N.M.; supervised cargo-moving processes and personal-property-
moving processes.
civiliaN Role: Veterans vocational evaluator, Operation Indepen-
dence at Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont, Charlotte,
N.C. (a position funded by Microsoft).
After his 2008 discharge from the Air Force, Nicholas Riggins
went to college to earn a dual MBA and master’s degree in organizational leadership, but his technical knowledge all comes from
the military. “I was raised in rural America. I didn’t have access to
the level of technology that I experienced in the Air Force,” he says.
Like a lot of the veterans he now coaches at Goodwill Indus-
tries, in a position funded by Microsoft’s Elevate America’s Vet-
erans initiative, Riggins wasn’t at first aware of just how many
of the tech skills he picked up during his service were applicable
in business. “Intermediate SQL-type querying — something we
did all the time — I had no idea how valuable it was,” Riggins
recalls. “Access, Excel, high-level database work and presenta-
tions — those are valuable to employers.”
Beyond tech expertise, veterans have “a personal desire to
improve the organization they’re working for.” That doesn’t
apply just to officers, Riggins is quick to point out: “Every mili-
tary person is trained this way.”
translating Military Skills into Business terms
The White House’s hire-a-vet initiative features an array of services — including Careers4Vets from AT&T, Elevate America’s
Veterans from Microsoft, and US Military Pipeline from Futures
Inc. — that help veterans translate their military job codes and
skills into terms that can be understood by corporate recruiters.
The problem can be a big one. Chris Norton, the Army reservist and longtime AT&T employee, recalls once speaking with
a young veteran at a job fair who described his experience as
“served in the Navy, worked on Seahawk, honorably discharged,
now in college.” Only after Norton pressed him did the sailor
share the kind of details that a hiring manager would find attractive: He had supervised a staff of 10 mechanics responsible
for five helicopters that cost $20 million each, and he was then
working toward a degree in applied mathematics at a well-respected college.
“There’s a big difference there,” Norton says. “You accrue
some amazing attributes through your military service; you just
can’t always put a name on them.” u
progressive insurance »progressive insurance recruiting manager connie Dingeman,
who herself served in the U. S. army
for eight years, says leadership is a key
asset. “We have hired a lot of ex-military
into leadership roles where someone else
might have been hired into a more
entry-level position. and veterans are
mission-oriented, which fits well with
progressive — we want that sense
of clear goals and objectives.”
Siemens »“veterans are used to having a high level of autonomy and
accountability, and to making decisions
quickly in a crisis,” says Mike Brown,
senior director of talent acquisition at
Siemens corp. “if you’re the only person
on site when a [Siemens] turbine or a
generator goes down, you’re going to
need that kind of discipline to handle
the situation correctly.”
Microsoft »“this is a group of individuals that is highly trained, highly skilled
and disciplined. they are eager to give
back and be productive,” says andrea
taylor, director of North american
community affairs at Microsoft.
“[Microsoft] certification is an extra
boost. they have a credential that says
their military training is valued
in the business world.”
